Direct mail is such a cool marketing strategy. I bet that’s a sentence you’re surprised to hear in a world of flashy social media videos and hyper-targeted online ads. Even though advertising via mail has been done for centuries, it's still a relatively untapped marketing concept in the e-commerce world — meaning there’s a lot of potential for small businesses to stand out. I’ve worked on direct mail strategies for several of my clients, and the results speak for themselves: These campaigns see an average of 10 to 50x ROAS (return on ad spend), and one that I worked on even saw a 107.9x retur ..read more

Spoiler alert: it’s not organic vs paid social media – it’s organic and paid social media. Businesses often grapple with which to focus on, but that mindset ignores the value of both organic and paid social media to enhance the success of your overall marketing strategy significantly. Both approaches require different methods but will be equally effective overall. Organic social media involves creating and sharing content that resonates with your target audience, fostering genuine engagement, and building a loyal community around your brand. On the other hand, paid social media allows you to ..read more

Landing paid partnerships as a creator doesn’t necessarily require a huge following — but it does require a professional influencer media kit.  Many brands and companies are happy to work with creators and influencers with smaller followings, but they’ll likely want to see some proof of your metrics and professionalism before sending you a contract or products. Enter: a media kit. Media kits are essential for social media influencers looking to monetize their work, no matter their audience size, says Ayomi Samaraweera, former TikTok employee turned creator, now the founder of Canopy, an ..read more

Unique circumstances will forever mark the first half of the 2020s, but those alone won’t capture the decade's legacy. A layer deeper, we see how the events accelerated new trends that shape our world today, like the rise of solopreneurship. A solopreneur is any business driven exclusively by one person. Modern solopreneurs commonly run their businesses, at least in some part, through the Internet. Common examples include life coaches, writers, visual creators, and consultants. Unlike traditional startup founders who seek to grow headcount and scale a product, solopreneurs often are the produ ..read more

Everything TikTok can do, Instagram can do better — and vice versa. While the other social media platforms have been racing to keep up with TikTok’s short-form video offering since it burst onto the market in 2016, TikTok has flipped the script with the launch of its own photo-sharing app. TikTok Notes, a direct rival to Instagram’s original offering, is now available to download in specific regions. We had Bufferoos based in both of those regions test it out and share some insights (and some pretty neat screenshots).  This may all change when (or if) TikTok rolls out TikTok Notes to the ..read more

Each year, fresh ideas, concepts, and technological innovations shape the creative design landscape. These influences give rise to a wave of new graphic design trends, revolutionizing how we conceive, craft, and engage with art. Many of these graphic design trends infiltrate the realms of business and marketing. Some influence web design, some make their way onto packaging, and others become a staple for social media branding. In order to stay ahead of the curve, savvy business owners are constantly on the lookout for ways to keep their social media branding fresh, engaging, and relevant. One ..read more

LinkedIn is the rare instance of a social media platform with a very clear focus: you’re either there for your business or your career. It’s also one of the first social platforms people looking for a B2B partner go. And because B2B partnerships often take more than just providing card details and hitting Buy, it’s a goldmine of opportunity for building brand awareness – for those who know how to harness it. The caveat with LinkedIn is that its content is very much driven by the individuals on it. Its audience is served content by the LinkedIn algorithm from their connections and people relat ..read more

Although my brother and I started our womenswear brand KESTAN as an e-commerce company, the real breakthrough for our online presence came when we opened our first brick-and-mortar store.  Our retail stores succeeded because we were able to deliver an entire brand experience rather than just be content to try and sell products. We were able to create a cohesive visual identity that people loved to surround themselves with. We were able to interact with customers to help them make purchasing decisions, give them styling ideas, and understand more about what they’re looking for to tailor o ..read more

Think nonprofits and Silicon Valley startups have nothing in common? Think again. I started my career working in a nonprofit setting, and now I’m a fractional marketing director for nonprofits. From higher education to arts and literacy organizations, I’ve seen it all.  As a tech writer and editor, I’ve also steeped in the “rocket fuel” of the startup world. From my experience, nonprofits and startups have startling similarities: Both have small teams of employees who wear multiple hats, and both depend on outside funding for operations, whether it's from investors or donors.  One k ..read more

In 2014, making money on social media was a feat for a select few people like travel creator Gabby Beckford (@packslight), who made $2,000 for six Instagram posts in the same year. It wasn’t a viable path for most creators — and there weren’t many options in the first place. Fast-forward a decade, and the landscape of creator monetization has changed completely. Now, it’s not only possible to supplement your regular income with content creation but to dwarf it entirely. Gabby makes hundreds of thousands of dollars from her content, netting nearly $300,000 in 2023. Top Instagram influencers re ..read more